Braz on talks with Leonardo Jardim after Jesus at Flamengo | OneFootball

Leonardo Jardim Was Close to Leading Flamengo in 2020

When Flamengo parted ways with Jorge Jesus due to the pandemic in 2020, he suggested the name of Leonardo Jardim to take over the team. The board at the time liked the suggestion and pursued the current coach of Mengão. In an interview with ESPN channels, Marcos Braz, the club’s vice president of football at the time, said that financial issues prevented the deal from happening.

— When Jorge Jesus left, we already had a coach lined up, we knew who it would be, what path we would take, and ten days later, after we had the budget to hire this coach, two days before the trip, I was told that we could no longer have the same budget — said Marcos Braz.

— The current (coach of Flamengo, in this case Leonardo Jardim). The person who informed me (about the budget issue) was Bruno Spindel, but he definitely received orders from someone else. My relationship with Bruno Spindel, just to make it clear here, has always been wonderful, he took care a bit more of the administrative parts — added the former Flamengo executive.

DID BRAZ AND JARDIM MEET?

Marcos Braz even scheduled a meeting with Leonardo Jardim, but received news that made him cancel the lunch. The difficulties brought on by the Coronavirus naturally affected Flamengo, which had to rethink its planning.

— The problem wasn’t the (budget cut), the problem is that we had a certain budget, and to be fair, we were in the middle of the pandemic, a lot of unpredictability, so making this judgment now might be unfair to those who made the cut. I’ll admit the mistake of not having played a bit harder. We had this budget because of Jorge Jesus, the budget was already set, we had already made the proposal to Jorge Jesus… when he left, we kept that budget throughout the year — Braz pointed out.

— I got in touch (with Leonardo Jardim), asked to schedule a lunch with him in Braga, where he lives, and when I saw that I wouldn’t have the budget, I canceled the lunch myself, there was no point in going there. And I’ve already talked about this with Leonardo Jardim — he concluded.

WHO CAME TO FLAMENGO IN PLACE OF JORGE JESUS?

So, with a smaller budget, Flamengo hired a cheaper coach to replace Jorge Jesus: Domènec Torrent. However, the Catalan did not succeed at the club and left after 26 matches. Even so, ‘Dome’ was able to add the 2020 Brazilian championship title to his résumé, which would later be won with Rogério Ceni.

WHAT WOULD IT HAVE BEEN LIKE IF LEONARDO JARDIM HAD JOINED FLAMENGO IN 2020?

Therefore, it remains in the imagination of Flamengo fans what Leonardo Jardim’s tenure would have been like after Jorge Jesus. The reality is the current ‘era’ of the coach, who has already won a Carioca and is seeking the top positions in the Brasileirão. This Thursday (19th), the Rubro-Negro faces Remo in the seventh round of the national tournament, with kickoff at 8:00 pm (Brasília time).

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.